Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER claimed a dominant victory at Monza this afternoon, in Round 2 of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.
The Winward Racing-fielded #48 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Maro Engel, Matteo Cairoli and Lucas Auer ran second during the opening half of the race, and took the lead during the second round of pit stops.
Multiple incidents saw a Full Course Yellow deployed mid-pit stop cycle, which enabled the #48 Mercedes-AMG to pass the #17 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed entry, which had led from pole position.
Any chance of a comeback for the #17 AMG GT3 Evo ended when Luca Stolz had to pull off with a loose front left wheel following his final pit stop.
Auer brought the #48 AMG GT3 Evo home for the victory, 16.417 seconds ahead of the #59 Garage 59 McLaren GT3 Evo of Benjamin Goethe, Marvin Kirchhöfer and Joseph Loake.
It is Mercedes-AMG’s first win at Monza, and means the German marque has now won at every venue on the GT World Challenge Europe schedule.
“It was actually quite tough, because the track was very dirty,” reflected Auer.
“A lot of things were happening, so it was very easy to pick up a puncture. The guys did amazing.”
The three-hour race was interrupted by eight Full Course Yellows, with the most significant being deployed at the 80-minute mark, during the second pit stop cycle, following separate incidents for the #64 HRT – Ford Performance Mustang GT3 and the #111 CSA Racing McLaren.
The leaders were effectively divided into three groups: those who could pit entirely under the Full Course Yellow; those who were in the pits when it was deployed; and those who had already pitted.
The FCY enabled Cairoli, the #007 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo of Marco Sorensen and the #60 VSR Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 of Alessio Deledda to jump to the front of the field.
Fabian Schiller fell to fourth in the #17 AMG GT3 Evo, which had controlled the opening half of the race in the hands of Jules Gounon, whilst the #58 Garage 59 McLaren plummeted from third to 15th, having pitted entirely under green.
By the time Schiller had fought his way back up to second, Cairoli had amassed a lead of over 12 seconds. Schiller slowly closed on Cairoli before handing over to Stolz, when the loose wheel ended the hopes for what had been the quickest car this weekend.
This gave Auer a 25-second advantage over Loake, and the McLaren driver, in his maiden GT3 race, closed on the leading Mercedes-AMG until the gap stabilised around the 15-second mark.
Third place went to the #007 Comtoyou Racing entry of Nicki Thiim, Sorensen and Mattia Drudi, ahead of the Gold Cup-winning #777 AlManar Racing by WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Al Faisal Al Zubair, Ben Tuck and Jens Klingmann. Tuck was one of the stars of the race, charging from 11th to fifth during the middle stint.
The #777 BMW dominated the Gold Cup, finishing 36 seconds ahead of the #33 Verstappen.Com Racing Aston Martin and the #88 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.
Charles Weerts, Ugo De Wilde and Kelvin van der Linde retained the drivers’ championship lead with fifth in the #32 Team WRT BMW, although their advantage over the #48 Mercedes-AMG trio has been cut to just two points.
Behind, the #22 Schumacher CLRT Porsche 911 GT3.R (992) finished sixth after Ayhancan Güven passed Henrique Chaves in the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin on the final lap. Chaves’ defence was one of the highlights of the final stint, as he tried to hold back the faster Porsche’s of Güven and Pure Rxcing’s Thomas Preining.
Century Motorsport won the Silver Cup, with the #42 BMW of Mex Jansen, Will Moore and Jarrod Waberski finishing eighth overall. Jensen passed the #30 Team WRT BMW of Etienne Cheli for the class lead inside the final 20 minutes, after the French driver overshot the first chicane. Cheli finished 9th overall, ahead of the Pro #163 VSR Lamborghini.
The #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi completed the Silver podium in 13th overall, after Andrea Frassineti went off at Ascari in the #60 Lamborghini whilst running third in the closing minutes.
It was heartbreak for the Silver Cup pole-sitting #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin, which retired on the opening lap after Kobe Pauwels had contact with the #9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG of Maximilian Götz.
Bronze Cup honours went to the #97 Rutronik Racing Porsche of Antares Au and Loek Hartog, which finished 11th overall.
Second was the #81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG, ahead of the #188 Garage 59 McLaren, which led until the order was shuffled under the key FCY period.
Andrea Bertolini ended his professional driving career as the leading Ferrari overall, with fourth in Bronze in the #52 AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors 296 GT3 alongside Louis and Jef Machiels.
The #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche, which started the weekend second in the championship, ended up a disappointing 21st. Having started 27th, the car lost the lead lap after Sven Müller picked up a Drive-Through penalty for contact early on and never recovered.
Several teams will leave Monza bitterly disappointed, after an attritional race saw only 42 of the 58 starters reach the finish.
The #17 Mercedes-AMG was joined in late retirement by both Pro class AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors Ferraris and the #63 GRT – Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini, whilst an incident at the first chicane at the two-hour mark eliminated the #58 Garage 59 McLaren and #98 ROWE Racing BMW.
The next race for GT World Challenge Europe is the blue-riband 24 Hours of Spa, which takes place from June 25-29.
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
